List of Superman supporting characters

Metropolis

''Daily Planet'' staff

• Lois Lane: An award-winning reporter and Clark Kent/Superman's primary love interest, and the character most commonly associated with Superman. Lois had traditionally been portrayed through the years as Clark's co-worker, fierce competitor, friend, love interest, fiancé, and wife with a reckless streak when pursuing a story.
• Jimmy Olsen: A Daily Planet photographer who often works with Lois and Clark, and has become a good friend to both. Jimmy is also known to have associated with Superman, earning him the nickname "Superman's Pal." In several stories, Jimmy has briefly acquired superhuman powers and taken on several different identities to assist Superman, the most notable and recurring of them being Elastic Lad. The character was originally created for the radio series so that Superman would have someone with whom he could talk, with Jack Grimes providing his voice in later installments.
• Perry White: The chief editor of the Daily Planet, he is noted for his trademark cigars and gruff, but caring, demeanor with his staff.
• George Taylor: The first and former editor-in-chief of the Daily Star, before the Daily Star was renamed the Daily Planet.
• Cat Grant: A gossip columnist for the Daily Planet, introduced in post-Crisis comics as a potential love interest for Clark. A divorcée and single mother, she became the focus of a tragic storyline that saw her son Adam murdered by the Toyman. Later, she worked for WGBS-TV, before becoming press secretary for President Lex Luthor. Eventually, Cat returned to the Daily Planet as the editor of the Entertainment and Arts section.
• Ron Troupe: A political editorialist for the Daily Planet, introduced in post-Crisis comics. Ron is an accomplished journalist, known for his liberal political views. He eventually marries, and has a child with, Lois's sister Lucy Lane, making him Lois's and Clark's brother-in-law, as well as their co-worker and friend.
• Steve Lombard: A blowhard sports reporter for WGBS-TV who was a recurring character and occasional romantic nemesis for Clark Kent during the mid-1970s era. Post-Crisis, Steve is the sports editor of the Daily Planet.
• Dirk Armstrong: A right-wing editorialist who wrote an opinion column for the Daily Planet. His political leanings and opinion often conflicted with those of Clark Kent, including depicting Superman as a menace and Lex Luthor a victim of the media and the political system. Armstrong would go on to work for LexCom.

  Metropolis Police Department

• David Corporon: The Commissioner of the Metropolis Police Department and staunch ally of Superman has been advocating peace in Metropolis for the past several years. When promoted, at the time, he was the youngest police commissioner in the country. He considers Commissioner James Gordon of Gotham City to be an inspiration and role model to help shape his career in law enforcement.
• Captain Maggie Sawyer: Introduced in the post-Crisis comics, Sawyer was a member of Metropolis' Special Crimes Unit. An out lesbian, she was perhaps one of the first gay characters introduced in mainstream comics. She has been in a long-term relationship with a reporter named Toby Raines for several years.
• Inspector Henderson: One of Metropolis's top police officers. Introduced in the Adventures of Superman, portrayed by Robert Shayne, he was adapted into the comics in the 1980s.
• Dan Turpin: He works in the Metropolis Special Crimes Unit, and he has occasionally faced off toe-to-toe against metahuman villains. He has often been depicted as working under Maggie Sawyer.

  Mayors of Metropolis

• Mayor Harkness - Mayor Harkness was a mostly mentioned Mayor of Metropolis during the Bronze Age, Earth-One pre-Crisis universe.
• Mayor Frank Berkowitz - Berkowitz began his term prior to Superman's first known public meeting with Lex Luthor as depicted in the Man of Steel #4 mini-series by John Byrne. Superman was given a choice: join Luthor and received a generous check from him as first payment for his services, or arrest Luthor for the events in #4 as Berkowitz asked him to. Superman's decision made Luthor his deadliest enemy to this day. Some years later, Berkowitz was killed by a sniper hired by Luthor.
• Mayor "Buck" Sackett - "Buck" Sackett was elected as Berkowitz's successor. He was covertly Lex Luthor's "puppet".
• Mayor Fleming - Mayor Fleming is an African American female who was introduced in Nick Spencer's Jimmy Olsen back-ups. She chose Jimmy Olsen and Sebastien Mallory to show the Dalwythian-Aliens the city.

  Organizations in Metropolis

• Science Police: An upgraded version of the Metropolis Special Crimes Unit led by the Guardian for a time.
• The staff of Project Cadmus would occasionally become involved in Superman's activities, especially when Darkseid established the Evil Factory and later when the Project generated an imperfect clone of Superman in Superboy. Some notable members include Paul Westfield, Dubbilex, Guardian, Heat Wave, and the Newsboy Legion.
• CAELOSS : A group of activists who employ electronic communication and super science cybernetics and oppose Lex Luthor's control of Metropolis. During the conflict with Brainiac-13, they helped defend Metropolis.

  Other Metropolis citizens

• Lex Luthor: Superman's nemesis.
• Professor Emil Hamilton: Post-Crisis, Professor Hamilton fills the role that Professor Potter did Pre-Crisis, as a S.T.A.R. Labs scientist who lends his assistance as needed to Superman.
• Bibbo Bibbowski was a fan of Superman, a dock worker in the Hob's Bay Area who was inspired by the hero to become an active force for good in Metropolis after their meeting. Bibbo would often try to come to the aid of his city and Superman, but generally acted more as comic relief. After drawing a winning lottery ticket, Bibbo buys the Ace of Clubs bar, which becomes a gathering place for various Metropolis characters.
• Colin Thornton is the publisher of Newstime magazine and was the one-time boss of Clark Kent when the reporter worked as his editor. Thornton was in actuality the civilian identity of the demon lord Satanus.
• Sam Lane: The father of Lucy and Lois Lane, Sam Lane was an army general who served as Lex Luthor's Secretary of Defense during his presidency. Believed to have given his life during the Imperiex conflict, Lane turned up later heading up Project 7734 leading to the destruction of New Krypton. When his hand in New Krypton's genocide came to light, he took his own life.
• Lucy Lane: Lois Lane's sister and Sam Lane's other daughter. She was Jimmy Olsen's on-and-off love interest in pre-Crisis continuity.
• Chloe Sullivan: A reporter for the Metropolis-based website Metropolitan, a post-Crisis love interest of Jimmy Olsen, and a cousin of Lois Lane. Chloe first appeared in the 2000s television series Smallville and was integrated into DC Comics canon in September 2010.
• Tana Moon: A reporter for WGBS-TV who commonly works with Kon-El. She was introduced during the Reign of the Supermen story arc in 1993.

  Smallville residents

• Jonathan and Martha Kent: Superman's foster parents who adopted and raised him after he landed on Earth. They are often referred to as Ma and Pa Kent.
• Lana Lang: Clark Kent's childhood friend and sometimes love interest from Smallville. Pre-Crisis, Lana often suspected Clark of being Superboy. On several occasions, Pre-Crisis, Lana gained super-human powers from a ring she received from an alien whose life she had saved, and had several adventures as the Insect Queen. During the 1970s, Lang was also a co-worker with Clark Kent during his time as a television reporter for WGBS; post-Crisis, Clark told Lana about his powers in high school before leaving Smallville. Later, Lana married Pete Ross, and had a son named Clark. Lana was briefly First Lady of the United States, and later worked as the CEO of LexCorp. Currently, Lana and Pete are separated, and Lana lives and works in Metropolis as the business editor of the Daily Planet.
• Pete Ross: Clark Kent's childhood friend from Smallville. Pre-Crisis, Pete had accidentally discovered Clark was really Superboy, but kept the knowledge a secret from Clark. Post-Crisis, he did not learn Clark's secret until much later, and had married Lana Lang, with whom he had a son named Clark. Pete served as Vice President under Lex Luthor; following Luthor's impeachment and conviction, Ross became President of the United States for a brief time. Currently, Pete and Lana are separated, and Pete lives in Smallville with their son.
• Professor Phineas Potter: Pre-Crisis, Professor Potter was an eccentric scientist who used his talents to sometimes assist Superboy or Superman. Potter was depicted in Superboy stories as Lana Lang's maternal uncle.
• Police Chief Douglas Parker: The chief of Smallville's police department. Chief Parker mainly appeared in Silver Age Superboy stories, rarely appearing in later comics.
• Kenny Braverman: A childhood rival of Clark Kent, Braverman was poisoned from the radiation of kryptonite embedded in the infant Kal-El's space craft and afflicted with bouts of illness his entire life. He would later become the villain Conduit.
• Carl Draper a.k.a. the Master Jailer was a classmate of both Lana Lang and Clark Kent. He was in love with Lana and to get her attention, he trapped Superman who she was in love with.
• Lex Luthor: Superman's adult nemesis, in Golden Age stories, was a rotund middle-aged criminal scientist, with no given first name, who first met and confronted Superman as an adult in Metropolis. In Silver Age canon introduced in 1958–59, Luthor was reinvented as Lex Luthor, a brilliant teenage student roughly the same age as Clark Kent, who moved to Smallville when both were students in high school. An outstanding science student but socially awkward, Lex Luthor became friends with Clark Kent, one of the few students able to understand him on a scientific basis. In the storylines, Lex Luthor became a friend of Superboy. Taking note of Lex's scientific brilliance and potential to make socially beneficial discoveries, Superboy builds an advanced laboratory for Luthor to use to pursue these breakthroughs. In one storyline, Luthor is experimenting with the development of artificial biological matter when a fire breaks out in the laboratory. The fire quickly spreads and intensifies, and Superboy on his regular patrol quickly arrives to put out the fire with his super-breath. However, in the process the biological growth in Luthor's experiment is consumed in the fire, producing a caustic gas which causes all of Luthor's hair to fall out. Enraged to an irrational fury by the disaster, Luthor focuses the blame on Superboy, vowing to battle the hero the rest of his life, to the extent of killing him if possible. The Silver Age plotline of Clark Kent and Lex Luthor having been teenage friends or acquaintances has been retconned in and out several times since Crisis on Infinite Earths in 1986.